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Convicted UK conman tracked down in Portugal

A convicted Welsh conman has been confronted in Lisbon about his latest alleged crimes by the BBC’s Week In Week Out programme, which aired on Tuesday this week. According to the BBC report, Kenner Elias Jones, commonly known as Ken Jones, has been accused of taking thousands of pounds off locals and small businesses in Lisbon and the nearby town of Palmela.

With a reported criminal career spanning around 40 years, Mr. Jones has been convicted of more than 60 times, and has been deported from Canada and the United States.In Portugal, Mr. Jones is believed to have cheated a travel agent in Palmela, persuading her to hand over travel tickets worth €2,500 (£2,160) before disappearing without paying for them.Travel agent Paula Silva told the BBC: “He came to see me and said that he wanted three tickets for his wife and two children to travel from Uganda to Lisbon, because he had seen a house and a school here, and said that he wanted to live in Palmela.” “After the meeting I was thinking that something didn’t make sense, and so I started investigating him on the internet - and I realised that he didn’t exist.”Lisbon-based architect Francisco Guedes de Carvalho also revealed to the programme how he was almost deceived into renting Mr. Jones an apartment.Mr. Jones, who is originally from Caernarfon, Gwynedd in Wales, introduced himself as “Kenner Ngeiwo Hawkins” and attempted to rent a flat from Mr. Carvalho before the architect became suspicious.“I trusted him immediately during our first meeting,” Mr. de Carvalho told the BBC, adding that he became suspicious after the meeting and investigated him.In 1975 at the Old Bailey in London he was jailed for three years for committing theft and forgery, and later received a 15-month prison sentence at Coventry Crown Court for obtaining money by deception in 1980. At Merthyr Crown Court in 1996, Mr. Jones received an 18-month sentence for deception and fraud. His crimes continued and over the years, he has defrauded dozens of individuals including charities and religious institutions.In 2003, Jones absconded from Lewes Crown Court as he was about to stand trial accused of stealing thousands of pounds from an employer, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Sussex Police told the BBC that the warrant is still active, and if Mr. Jones is arrested again in Europe they will consult the Crown Prosecution Service about whether to pursue an extradition order. In 2010, Mr. Jones was investigated by the Taro Naw programme, produced by BBC Wales for S4C, after he posed as a doctor in Kenya for seven years without any medical qualifications. He has also claimed to be a priest, despite not being ordained. He left debts of more than a US $100,000 in Kenya when he returned to Europe, and here too there is a warrant for his arrest.